I installed a full-flow filter kit last summer when I swapped to a 261 short block. It did not work out well and I had to re-plumb it last week.
The kit was mostly rigid stainless steel 3/8" pipe with some 6AN flex and swivel fittings at one end to connect to the remote filter housing. I am not a pipe fitter by trade and the installation was tedious and time consuming. It has 5 90deg. L bows and 3 45deg. On top of the filter housing I had to use 2 45s to get clearance from the exhaust manifold. The exhaust manifold is the whole reason for the rigid pipe in the first place as the flex won't stand the heat from it or the down pipes. By the time I was done it was a plumbers nightmare -- and it leaked, but not from a convenient fitting, noooo. It was several joints back from the end with the AN fitting. My trouble with 90 degree fittings is that to get the 90 pointed the right way it's always a compromise between too loose and splitting the pipe fittings . So after much pipe dope and tape I got it to not leak.
Fast forward to my 3,500 mi. January trip From N.E. Washington to Quartzite, AZ and return. Along about Boise ID, I smell burning oil. It's leaking from one of the 90 onto the exhaust pipe. It's well below freezing and threatening snow. Well, it only leaks a little. I'll keep an eye on it. Oil consumption is running about 1 qt. in 800 miles so I can live with it if it doesn't get worse. Fortunately it didn't get worse.
So I got home, parked the truck till I needed it to haul farm stuff then took the camper off. In early March here it's still well below freezing over night. And just like in January it takes an alarming long time for the oil pressure to go up; I mean maybe a minute before it even moves the gauge needle. I had also noticed that on the trip the hot-and-running oil pressure was higher as the oil temperature went up. Hmmm...
The oil filter passages from the factory are drilled for 1/2 in. pipe. The kit included 4 bushings to accommodate the 3/8 pipe. These are now in the pipe-fitting box. I re-plumbed the filter using 8AN hose and 1/2 in. pipe fittings. A 4in. stub for the return side of the filter gets the hose out away from the exhaust down-pipe and a longish run of 8AN braided stainless hose goes around the outside of the steering box and up to the filter. The pressure side gets a 1/2 in. 90 right out of the block and braided hose loops down below the filter and away from the front exhaust down-pipe then runs up to the filter housing. The oil hoses benefit from the heat shields I made for the AC hoses and compressor. The oil pressure now goes up like it did before the plumbing fiasco and it's 10 lbs. higher than before, hot or cold. And best of all, it doesn't leak. Oh, and it looks neat and tidy; not like before with long lengths of rigid pipe attached to the engine, vibrating and waiting to break off and spill all the oil out -- in a big hurry -- and no more rat's nest of 6AN hose trying to get to the filter housing so that you can't even see the A/C compressor much less adjust the belt. There's a five-hundred mile trip coming later this month so we'll see how it holds up. I'll have a thousand pound load of appliances on that trip over the mountains.
